Noticias

Peace talks between the Sudanese government and the rebel Sudanese People’s Liberation Movement-North (SPLM-N) have resumed in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa, on Tuesday in a new bid to end the nearly three-year-long conflict in South Kordofan and Blue Nile states.

Last March, the African Union High-Level Implementation Panel (AUHIP) chief, Thabo Mbeki, suspended the talks after failing to bridge the positions of the parties on the agenda of the negotiations. He pointed out that the SPLM-N did not accept a draft framework agreement he had proposed.

The speaker of the Sudanese parliament, Al-Fatih Izz Al-din, has expressed readiness of the National Assembly to engage in direct talks with the United States Congress in order to normalise relations and lift the US sanctions imposed on Sudan since 1997.

He pointed to the negative impact of the US sanctions on women and children besides all aspects of development, life-saving drugs, technology, education, aviation, and railways.

An opposition party revealed that president Omer Hassan Al-Bashir agreed to form a transitional government to implement a national political program saying it must not last for more than two years.

Sudan’s opposition Popular Congress Party’s (PCP) secretary of foreign relations, Bashir Adam Rahma said, in an interview with the Qatari Al-Watan newspaper on Sunday, that Bashir accepted this transitional government which will administrate the country during the national dialogue process.

he leader of the opposition National Umma Party, Saddiq Al-Mahdi said rebels of the Sudanese Revolutionary Front are more realistic than some opposition thinkers in Khartoum who believe that the regime can be overthrown.

Al-Mahdi who since last year suspended the membership of his party in the opposition umbrella of the National Consensus Forces (NCF) was commenting on the position of the latter which refuses to participate in a national dialogue initiated by the president Omer Al-Bashir.

 The opposition alliance National Consensus Forces (NCF) decided to freeze the membership of Hassan Al-Turabi party because they accepted to take part in the national dialogue process.

The NCF which gathers the Communist party and other small political forces said they suspend the Popular Congress Party (PCP) and another small formation called Justice Party, for their participation in the political process launched by president Omer Al-Bashir last January.

Sudan’s ruling National Congress Party (NCP) has expressed readiness to agree with the political forces and rebel groups on a national program to govern the country in the coming period but reiterated its rejection to establishing a transitional government.

The presidential assistant and deputy chairman of the NCP, Ibrahim Ghandour, said his party is ready to agree with political forces on a political program to govern the country, pointing they refuse to join a government comprised of dissonant forces similar to the one which was formed before the secession of South Sudan.

Sudanese president Omer Hassan Al-Bashir issued a decree on Monday guaranteeing political parties the freedom to carry out public activities as long as they obtain prior authorisation.

The presidential decree, which has been in force since Monday, provides for the freedom of political intellectual activities for all political organisations, stressing that all parties should be equally and impartially treated.

Presidential aide Ibrahim Ghandour said he regretted that the rebel alliance Sudanese Revolutionary Front (SRF) had decided not to participate in national dialogue, which aims to discuss regional conflicts and ways to ensure democratic transition in Sudan.

“I hoped that the position of the Revolutionary Front would not be the rejection of dialogue,” he told reporters in Khartoum on Tuesday evening following a meeting with a visiting delegation from the Chinese Communist Party.

The social media network Facebook disclosed in its second global government transparency report, covering the period between July and December of 2013 that it received official requests from the Sudanese government to reveal information on four of its users.

The report shows regular numbers pertaining to government requests for user data.